In light of recent credit card and personal information leaks the need for a more secure method for securing encryption keys is evident. In recent breaches the data was encrypted on a secure server but the keys were stolen with the data allowing the data to be exposed.
As an illustration, these breaches involved “secure” computers where a merchant stores encryption/decryption keys. When the hacker breached the secure computer, the hacker stole the key that was needed for cryptographic operations used in accessing the merchant's data. In view of this situation and others, security approaches associated with encryption/decryption operations can be improved.